ReviewPharmacoepidemiology and drug safety2018
Methods for time-varying exposure related problems in pharmacoepidemiology: An overview.
Review in Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 77 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Medicines Related Problems (MRPs) Originating in Primary Care Settings in Older Adults - A Systematic Review.Journal of pharmacy practice · 2023Pooled it
- Methodological evaluation of bias in observational coronavirus disease 2019 studies on drug effectiveness.Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of tocilizumab in COVID-19 patients: a living systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Association of corticosteroids use and outcomes in COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of infection and public health · 2020Pooled it
- Article
- Causal Inference Approaches to Estimating the Effect of Ibrutinib Dose Modifications on Progression-Free Survival in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Article
- Fluoroquinolone Exposure and Cancer Risk in Interstitial Lung Disease: A Propensity-Score-Matched Cohort Study Using Cox and Competing-Risk Models.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exploratory associations between co-occurring opioid and alcohol use disorders and GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist treatment.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Association of apolipoprotein C-III with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and the effectiveness of simulated interventions.Journal of geriatric cardiology : JGC · 2026Article
- Caution in handling switchers in pharmacoepidemiologic studies estimating treatment effects: the example of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors and inflammatory bowel disease.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Weighted Cumulative Exposure Modelling to Assess the Association Between Reproductive Factors and Future Cardiovascular Disease in Women.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2026Article
- A scoping review of real-world evidence generation methods to estimate the safety of type 2 diabetes medications on fracture risk.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2026Article
- Comparing rosuvastatin and atorvastatin on cardiovascular and kidney outcomes in patients with diabetes across chronic kidney disease stages: an emulated target trial in China.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Reinitiation of antidepressant pharmacotherapy among patients discharged from the hospital: A population-based cohort study.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Pharmacoepidemiology unpacked: a roadmap for junior researchers.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Negative control-calibrated difference-in-difference analyses: addressing unmeasured confounding in RWD with application to racial/ethnic differences.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Periodontal Care Is Associated With a Lower Risk of Dialysis Initiation in Middle-Aged Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A 6-Year Follow-Up Cohort Study Based on a Nationwide Healthcare Database.Journal of clinical periodontology · 2025Article
- Real-World Effectiveness of All-Oral Direct-Acting Antivirals in Patients With Hepatitis C Virus-Related HCC.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2025Article
- Grace periods and exposure misclassification in self-controlled case-series studies of drug-drug interactions.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Racialized experience, biomarkers of lead exposure, and later-life cognition: a mediation analysis.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issuedErratum.2018
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeLack of control for time-varying exposures can lead to substantial bias in estimates of treatment effects. The aim of this study is to provide an overview and guidance on some of the available methodologies used to address problems related to time-varying exposure and confounding in pharmacoepidemiology and other observational studies. The methods are explored from a conceptual rather than an analytical perspective.
methodsThe methods described in this study have been identified exploring the literature concerning to the time-varying exposure concept and basing the search on four fundamental pharmacoepidemiological problems, construction of treatment episodes, time-varying confounders, cumulative exposure and latency, and treatment switching.
resultsA correct treatment episodes construction is fundamental to avoid bias in treatment effect estimates. Several methods exist to address time-varying covariates, but the complexity of the most advanced approaches-eg, marginal structural models or structural nested failure time models-and the lack of user-friendly statistical packages have prevented broader adoption of these methods. Consequently, simpler methods are most commonly used, including, for example, methods without any adjustment strategy and models with time-varying covariates. The magnitude of exposure needs to be considered and properly modelled.
conclusionsFurther research on the application and implementation of the most complex methods is needed. Because different methods can lead to substantial differences in the treatment effect estimates, the application of several methods and comparison of the results is recommended. Treatment episodes estimation and exposure quantification are key parts in the estimation of treatment effects or associations of interest.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.